THE Margaret River wine region will be put under the spotlight as part of a senate inquiry into the Australian wine sector.
The inquiry will examine the costing and potential rebate for Australian wine.
WA senator Dean Smith co-sponsored the motion after seeing the demand for WA wine to be exported to China.
The focus of the inquiry will be on the impact of free trade agreements, the Wine Equalisation Tax rebate and production costs.
According to Mr Smith, Western Australia produces about 45 million litres of wine annually, representing nearly 5 per cent by volume of Australia’s production, but 12 percent of the value.
“Increased taxation on wine by health lobbyists and other alcohol industry sectors, the dominance of the larger retailers on the domestic scene, and liquor licensing reforms are creating new pressures on the industry and impacting on the profitability of many Western Australian wine producers,” Mr Smith said.
Mr Smith said WA wine producers were in a position to take advantage of the demand because they produce nearly one quarter of Australia’s fine wines.
Wills Domain Wines managing director Darren Haunold believed the proposed changes to the volumetric system would assist many WA wine producers due to their small or boutique nature.
He said the danger for these boutique wineries would be their reliance on the new system, as the volumetric system would reduce the gap between poor quality and high quality wine.
Mr Haunold stressed the importance of the domestic market, particularly if Australian wine producers were to see the WET reform, which would assist in profitability.
He said the industry would be best supported by educational programs, destination marketing and financial grants in these developing markets focussed on driving tourism and trade relations.
“The knock on effect is the affluent international tourist spending their money in our local economy which allows businesses to treble the effect; it’s passed onto the supporting industries of tourism like our primary producers, farmers, who need it most.”
He said it must be widely understood the quality of the wine from the region was unsustainable and the consumer should accept the small price shift in the interest of maintaining the diversity of wine produced.
However, Margaret River Chamber of Commerce president Peter Griffyn said it was important the price of Australian fine wines be competitively priced home and abroad to maintain and increase the place of our products on a market share.
He said looking outside the South West was essential to the industry’s survival.
